Early last month Mr. Justice Bucknill issued his findings as a result of the enquiry into the sinking of the British submarine Thetis, and the subsequent attempts to save the lives of the unfortunate men imprisoned in the vessel There was, it was pointed out, still much which was obscure, but there were at least six cardinal facts relating to the lossdef the vessel, and the greater number of her cre (1) The complete blocking of the test cock in the rear door of No. 5 torpedo tube with bitumastic enamel (2) The opening of the rear door at a time when the bow cap of the tube was open to the sea. The precise moment when the bow cap was opened is the critical and most obscure point in the case.
(3) The failure of those on board the Thetis to close effectively the port watertight bulkhead between the torpedo tube compartment and the torpedo stowage compartment.
(4) Tha failure of the Thetis to expel the water from the two flooded compartments.
(3) The failure of those outside the Thetis to render effective assistance.
(6) The failure of those on board to escape by the Davis escape apparatus.
The proximate cause of the disaster was the opening of the rear door of a torpedo tube while the bow cap stood open to the sea. The officer who opened the rear door had satisfied himself that the bow cap was closed, but th? Judge found that during the interval somebody must have moved the control lever sufficiently to cause the bow cap to open and then replaced it in a neutral position so that there was nothing in the position of the lever to indicate the true ate of affairs There would have been no ous consequences except for another sad accident. Lieut, Wood before opening the rear door performed the usual test to assure hims: lf that the bow cap was not open. If it were open, and the tube full of water, a jet of water would have come through a small hole in the door. That hole had, however, been blocked with enamel in the final stages of the construction of the ship. A rimer had been provided for dealing with such obstructions but unforiunately had never been used, and Lieut. Wood had been misled into opening the rear door. By the resuit of the enquiry those who continued insist that the vessel should be raised, despite the desire of some of the relatives of the crew that their dead should remain at the bottom of the sea undisturbed, have been completely justified. The enquiry revealed no structural defects in the submarine, and the sad accident is directly attributable to just one of those small things against which human intelligence always concentrates itself but is sometimes not wholly successful.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.